Nowhere Near a Damn Rainbow

The Poeticians, a Dubai, Amman and Beirut based collective of non-rhyming spoken word and free verse poets, released an anthology of their poetry and prose at the Hay Festival of Literature in Beirut on July 6th 2012. The compendium, titled Nowhere Near A Damn Rainbow will also be distributed in bookshops across the UAE and Lebanon, and includes readings from the Poeticians collective between 2007-2012. The 350-page volume of poetry and spoken word has been compiled and edited by Dubai resident, Palestinian poet and filmmaker Hind Shoufani, who curates and hosts the Poeticians’ monthly events. “The book is an unapologetic collection of rants, rambles, musings and lyrical love histories from 31 poets who have graced the Poeticians stage,” said Shoufani. “For me, a ‘Poetician’, a poet involved in politics, is someone using the power of words to try and shake up the world around them, to re-interpret social and political scenarios into personal perspectives that may challenge or nurture readers, or both.” Nowhere Near a Damn Rainbow sees Mazen Zahreddine, author of An Ever Receding Tide delivering biting prose about Beirut’s idiosyncrasies, and an unabashed tirade against the city’s violence. Maral Ghanma, a Beirut based copywriter and prolific tweep, has chosen her most popular tweets to create two playful poems. Dubai resident Rewa Zeinati, editor of literary journal Sukoon, deals with emotional landscapes in barren offices in Abu Dhabi, Palestinian memory and being an Arab in the USA. Zena el Khalil, author of Beirut, I Love You, recalls the last time she ever ate meat, a hamburger in NYC, and also offers a bold reaction to being sexually harassed by gunmen on the streets of Beirut. Frank Dullaghan, an Irish poet in Dubai and author of two books of poetry, delicately observes mall life in the UAE, a horrific account of a boy’s imprisonment, and a poem on the forgotten widows of Afghanistan. Edmund Haddad takes the reader on a sensual tour in the Arabic language of his love for the city of Beirut and the deep inner visual spaces that bring romance and magic to everyday experiences. “We dedicated this book to the innumerable lovers of Arabia who have struggled to create a better life and reality, even at the expense of lives and limbs,” said Shoufani. “People who struggle for pride, who are moved by love. Even if they have to grit teeth and battle recurring scars, everyone is nonetheless looking for a damn rainbow.”

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